Evolution -Readings

​Primary Textbook

Futuyma, D. J. and Kirkpatcick, M. 2022. Evolution,5th Edition Oxford University Press

 

No, you do not have to buy it. Many other textbooks also have more or less the same information This is just my personal favourite. Please note that I will not be simply summarizing the book. For that, you do not need an instructor. You could just read it yourself, unless you think the purpose of having an instructor is to save you the trouble of reading the book. I will use the book as a primary source to organize the course, but I will also use a variety of other resources.

 

Other Interesting Books/Articles (needs some updating)

Of the first 14 items,  you should probably read at least 5 of them during this course. They are all fairly light. The last few are textbooks, which you may choose to consult occasionally. The last one is Darwin’s masterpiece. It is actually hard to read, but if you are into history, go for it.

 

Bryson, B. 2003. A short history of nearly everything. Doubleday.

 

Dawkins, R. 1986. The blind watchmaker. Longman Scientific and Technical. Essex, England. A master of the art of finding the perfect metaphor. A  true pleasure to read, explains how seemingly complex structures can arise by miniscule consecutive changes without the need of a deity directing the process.

 

Dawkins, R. 1995. River out of Eden. New York: Basic Books. Another great metaphor to explain speciation and its consequences.

 

Dawkins, R.. 1978. The selfish gene. Oxford University Press, NY. Presents the argument that the gene, not the individual, should be considered as the unit of selection.

 

Freeman, S. and Herron, J. C. 2004. Evolutionary analysis, 3rd ed. Pearson Prentice Hall. Used previously and might get used again; it has a good section on adaptation.

 

Futuyma, D. J. 1995. Science on trial: the case for evolution. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, Massachusetts. Eloquently addresses all the usual arguments against evolution used by creationists.

 

Futuyma, D. J. 1997. Evolutionary Biology, 3rd ed. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, Massachusetts. A very comprehensive text on evolution, used by many courses.

 

Slatkin, M. 1995. Exploring evolutionary biology, readings from American Scientist, Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland Massachusetts. Easy readings about all aspects of evolution.

 

Gould, S. J. 1977. Ever since Darwin. W. W. Norton and Company, NY. Popular readings on evolution, by one of its most articulate products.

 

Gould, S. J. 1983. Hen’s teeth and horse’s toes. W. W. Norton and Company, NY. More popular readings on evolution.

 

Lozano, G.A. 2010. Evolutionary explanations in medicine: how do they differ and how to benefit from them. Medical Hypotheses 71(4): 746-749.

 

Pinker, S. 1997. How the mind works. New York: W. W. Norton. Another truly gifted writer.

 

Ridley M. 1996. The origin of virtue. Viking Penguin. Also a gifted writer. Here he examines human behaviour from an evolutionary perspective.

 

Ridley, M. 2000. Genome. New York: Perennial. Great reading. It makes genetics seem almost exciting.

 

Bell, G. 1997. Selection: the mechanism of evolution. Chapman & Hall, NY. A mentor from McGill. The book deals strictly with selection, and draws examples from all of evolution’s creation.

 

Ridley, M. 2004. Evolution, 3rd edition. Blackwell Science. A different Ridley. This is a textbook I HAD to use before. It is good at covering the basics, but it is not as in-depth as the Futuyma book

 

Stearns, S. C. and Hoekstra, R. F. 2005. Evolution, an introduction, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press. An easy to read textbook on evolution.

 

Stebbins, G. L. 1982. Darwin to DNA, molecules to humanity. W. H. Freeman & Company. San Francisco. I do not really like the title, it implies humanity is the ultimate product of evolution, but it is a good book nonetheless.

 

Darwin, C. 1859. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (electronic version). The greatest idea of all time! Detailed and exhaustive work, first documenting the fact of evolution and then proposing a mechanism.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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